Inside Frequency Control

The harsh truth is, selecting the wrong quartz crystal oscillator can quickly kill any design. With the wide variety of options and specs available on the market today, selecting the perfect crystal oscillator for your design can be a difficult and time-consuming task.

What's better than a crystal oscillator? A crystal oscillator combined with electronic frequency control (EFC)!

Of course, determining if EFC would be a good addition to your crystal oscillator circuit design (and if so, which method is best for you) comes down to your specific application and its requirements.

There are four options to choose from when selecting an electronic frequency control method for your crystal oscillator:

1. Pulse width modulation (PWM) & low-pass filter (LPF)
2. Reference RF signal & phase locked loop (PLL)
3. Voltage divide
4. Digital-to-analog converter (DAC)

In this post,  we'll take a closer look at each option and their best applications.

What if we told you that specifying more electronic frequency control (EFC) than you need could actually be hurting your company's wallet? Well, it very well may be!

Paying attention to whether your supplier is using AT-cut or SC-cut crystals will help you save money in the long run when it comes to oscillators. In this article, we'll review the difference between these two types of cuts and the impacts of EFC pull. 

Frequency perturbations, also referred to as activity dips, can be difficult to spot in crystal oscillators. But a single perturbation can cause major problems in an application’s signal, including within GPS or missile systems.

Imagine launching a missile and then losing control of its navigation. Or getting a very inaccurate GPS velocity reading of an aircraft. These (and many other problems) can be caused by a failure to spot activity dips in crystals.

In this article, we'll help you  understand what frequency perturbations are and how to prevent them from occurring in crystal oscillators.

Quartz crystal oscillators are the high and mighty option for low phase noise and added frequency stability in circuit design. Yes, simple oscillators like those made with resistor-capacitor (RC) or inductor-capacitor (IC) resonators are fine for some circuits.

But if you're dealing with higher performance applications in the aerospace, military, and space industries, you're going to want a higher performance crystal oscillator that can maintain low phase noise and strong stability. Otherwise, you'll risk deviating from the very specific (and usually critical) center frequency selected for your design.

In this blog, we'll discuss how to measure low phase noise and how to maintain it in your applications.

Poor manufacturing environments can significantly reduce the performance quality of a pressure transducer. A failing pressure transducer will lead to problems with sensors and will provide inaccurate readings (or none at all).

A faulty pressure transducer can not only cause frustration and waste time, but it can also lead to unnecessary costs.

To prevent pressure transducer problems or failure from happening in the first place, let's take a look at seven pressure transducer troubleshooting methods to keep your transducers and sensors working great!

Do you know all about atomic clocks in space and how they work? If not, it's about TIME you do. (Haha. Ha. Ha...)

Timing is everything when it comes to GPS satellites and other space applications. Even just a one-microsecond error in timing can lead to an error of 300 meters on the ground. Because atomic clocks can maintain very precise timing, they're a great solution for GPS and other LEO satellites.

There are 7 key factors to understanding successful crystal oscillator circuit design. These include:

1. Series circuit
2. Crystal load capacitance
3. Parallel circuit
4. Drive level
5. Frequency vs. mode
6. Design considerations
7. Negative resistance

Before we dive into the differences between the 5 GNSS constellations... It's important that we're all on the same page with the difference between GNSS and GPS.

Many people get GNSS and GPS technology confused. A good way to think about the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) is as the backbone (or underlying technology) behind GPS. The Global Positioning System (GPS) GPS is a GNSS constellation, but GNSS is not always GPS. GPS is one of the 5 GNSS constellations used around the world.

The 5 GNSS constellations include GPS (US), QZSS (Japan), BEIDOU (China), GALILEO (EU), and GLONASS (Russia). We'll cover each of these constellations in-depth in this post.

I have a feeling you're in need of some new test equipment... a new signal generator to be exact. If so, you've come to the right place. Maybe your current signal generator is outdated. Or maybe you're looking for your first one (in which case we'd be honored). 

No matter the reason, we wanted to share with you the best selection of waveform signal generators on the market today to help you make the best purchase based on your needs.